Finding a New Job
by TimeForced
Summary: By the day which marked two months living and working with Altano and his family, I was antsy to head East as quickly as I could. Which was fast indeed. But that day, well, that day changed my immediate plans altogether.


A/N: Quick little one shot, that actually has a long, if barebones, story behind it. Feel free to make up your own, I had a lot of fun on a long drive imaging the adventures Minato Namikaze would get up to in Middle Earth.

As a hint, for me they included provoking Mandos with a summoning, crushing the defenses of Minas Morgul, exploring the East, meeting Galadriel, and teleporting to Aman by sneaking a seal onto an Elf before they sailed along the Straight Road. Standard shinobi stuff.

* * *

I awoke, if indeed such a word could describe the muted darkness I was in, when someone placed my head upon a soft pillow.

Funny, how being picked up from the cold, harsh dirt and draped over the back of a horse couldn't wake me, yet the return of homely comforts finally returned some sense of time. Or at least, that's what I learned later.

It was not the first time I would drift back to reality, attempting to make sense of the small room in which I found myself, and it was far from the last.

Ah, forgot to introduce myself. Sorry! Name's Minato Namikaze: variously known as the Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage, and Laurëdacil.

That last one I didn't get for a while yet, so let's return to my gripping tale of waking up!

Eventually, I was well enough to lift my head and look around. My best guess for the time it took for me to get well, confirmed when I talked to my benefactors, was 2 weeks. It was on the day I managed to get a good look around that I met Cendë. She was the daughter of the soldier who had discovered me half-dead, from what the local healers called exhaustion and fever, and taken me back to be cared for.

Nearly as tall as my wife, and boy did I get animated after that thought, but looking young enough to be living dependent upon her parents, Cendë was the one in charge of the house. Not in the sense that she made decisions or had her dad wrapped around her pinky finger, which she did, but in the sense that her mother was no longer around and so she was in charge of her two siblings and the farm while their father, Altano, patrolled the forests with the local garrison. With long dark hair tied in a practical ponytail and a pretty mean stern face, Cendë did a great job putting a halt to my attempts to get up, even without being able to talk to me.

Oh yeah, did I mention that? No one there spoke Japanese, which meant that my first two months living with the proud little family were spent learning words and how to talk in between chores.

I never did learn what happened to Cendë's mother, though it was fairly obvious that she was gone by way of war.

I _am _a shinobi.

Or was.

Anyways, after two weeks of convalescence I managed to get back enough mental faculties to puzzle out my situation. My first order of business was to thank Cendë, and learn her name, and then thank her father when he visited.

I managed to achieve this much without the aid of language.

Finding out where I was? Rather harder. Even for an infamous shinobi and former Hokage like me.

It took another week for me to get out of bed, during which time I conversed with Cendë and her two younger brothers, Narmonér and Langion, who visited me with delight so that they could bring in various objects to name. In this manner, I picked up just enough language to learn from Altano what had happened, and to thank him profusely for his help.

Once I could move, I immediately set about helping around the farm however I could. Cendë also returned my effects, which included a couple of scrolls containing supplies, my trademark Hokage coat, and my general shinobi attire.

When I first popped open and unsealed one of my scrolls to ensure the contents were there Narmonér had jumped in surprise and started questioning me rapidly in his native tongue about my, as he described it, magic trick. It was rather hard to explain the art of sealing and pocket-spaces in a foreign language, so he ended up naming me a wizard, or Istari in his tongue, and leaving it at that.

Besides getting acquainted with the family which helped me, I also set about trying to find a way home. I knew I had succeeded in sealing the Kyuubi, even now I can feel the power of it's chakra pulsing away, alive, within my stomach, but that didn't mean Naruto was okay.

My baby boy had no father and mother, and I had to get back home.

I don't know what stroke of luck or act of god allowed me to survive total chakra exhaustion, the taking of my soul by the Death God, and sealing half of the Kyuubi's chakra within my own body, but it was worthless if my child was left alone in a village which had little reason to care for him.

I knew Sandaime would provide for Naruto, but without parents Naruto simply wouldn't be happy.

I refused to allow that.

So, with all of my prodigious intelligence, I strove to discover where I was and how that related to the Elemental Countries.

It wasn't promising.

The land I found myself in was known locally as Ithillien, a province of the Kingdom of Gondor. In Middle-Earth. Far, far to the west of my home.

Or not, as I would later learn, but at the time that was what I believed.

By the day which marked two months living and working with Altano and his family, I was antsy to head East as quickly as I could. Which was fast indeed.

But that day, well, that day changed my immediate plans altogether.

Turns out, I have an ingrained instinct to protect people. In case you ever wondered, that's a very bad thing to have in a kingdom directly neighbored by a land of darkness and evil.

"So, Minato," I have always been glad that Altano and his family made every effort to learn and pronounce my name, "when do you leave?"

I glanced up from where I was entertaining Langion with small balls of swirling blue chakra, a favorite show of the six year-old. I scratched my chin and thought for a bit, then answered. "By tomorrow. I want to get back to my family as fast as I can."

Altano hadn't believed my story of demons and teleportation, until I used Hiraishin in front of him. Then he got a little more amenable to the idea. As it was, he still had reservations about my abilities, but none of that showed whenever we discussed my desire to return home. He was a soldier with family too, and his slight smile proved it, "Of course. Cendë will provide you with food and water." He smirked a bit and jokingly added, "and I would offer money for a horse, except you seem to prefer trees to good, reliable old earth."

I laughed a bit, glad to commiserate with a fellow soldier. The meal and friendly air continued to relax my final day with the family until the first horn blow. Altano was up and headed for his armor immediately, and Cendë only barely paused before grabbing the two boys and heading to the back of the house. Altano spoke to me as he moved, "It's a raid by Orcs from Morgul. I'd appreciate it if you'd keep near and watch my family."

Similarly up and arming myself, I quirked an eyebrow. "I could help, you know. War is a specialty of mine."

Altano took a deep breath as he tightened the leather fastenings to his armor. His wry tone bespoke of stress and exasperation, "Much as I love my countrymen, they have not taken kindly to your language or Eastern origin. I trust you with my family, but they do not trust you in battle."

Shrugging in acquiescence, I shrugged on my flak vest and moved back into the house. We both paused, Altano stepping outside and me moving to the room at the back of the house. Locking eyes, we each gave each other nods and then turned about to our duties.

With swift, sure steps, I marched back to Cendë and her brothers. I found them sitting in the kitchen, which had the door pointed towards the walled village nearby.

Cendë nodded firmly to me, only just betraying her nerves with micro tremors, and grabbed her brothers' hands.

I smiled and reached over to stop them, "Wait." Cendë raised her eyebrow sharply, and I held up both hands to placate her. "I can get us there faster."

Confused, Cendë turned around fully, but her attention was caught when Langion started to hop around me excitedly chanting "We're gonna teleport! We're gonna teleport!"

Catching them all up in my arms, I focused on the kunai I had placed in the town center when I first learned about the raids and with a whisper we appeared inside the walls. Grabbing the kunai up from where I'd embedded it, I held it up in front of the shocked Cendë, who had fallen on her butt and stared at her still excited brother in bewildered consternation. Waving the weapon in front of her face to refocus her, I placed it in her hand, "Keep this. If trouble comes, throw it at the ground. I'll be there."

When I finally got a firm nod from her, I stood up and recalled myself to the kunai I dropped at the house. Picking that one up, I sprinted out and searched for the nearest battle.

It was easy to find, what with the burning farmstead and fifty or so skirmishers hacking away at each other. I took only a moment to confirm that Altano wasn't there, before I exploded into motion.

A handful of kunai spread over the heads of the invading force of grubby creatures, for they certainly didn't appear human, gave me the points of contact I needed. A dozen teleports later, and the small force of orcs was gone while the Ithilien defenders gaped in astonishment between me and the dead. I barked at them in my best Hokage voice, "Don't stand there gawping! There's more raiders about!" I stepped up once I had their full attention, "Who's in charge?"

When most of them looked to the dead bodies, I thinned my lips and walked forward to hand out more kunai. I gave them all quick orders, "Take these and spread out in small teams. If you find a significant enemy force, throw this at them. I'll take care of them."

They took comfort in the provided direction, and got to work.

I would have sighed, but I was well into a soldier's mentality by that point.

It was a job I had done since I was a child, and one that I would continue well on into old age.

I just never expected to found a new Hidden Village of the Leaves within a kingdom so foreign that the _gods_ were different and even the dimensions themselves separated me from home.

Ah! I apologize, but I have work to do. Between you and me, my son has gotten far to good at finding me in these inns, even when I come out here to Pelargir to hang out with traders from afar.

* * *

Closing Notes:

I also have this view of Henneth Annûn being turned into whatever the Quenya translation for Hidden Village in the Leaves would be, protected by seals and illusions and stuff while the Rangers learn to be extra devious and spy-ish. Can you imagine a shinobi trained force of Rangers counter-infiltrating Sauron and the East? Big change to the Long War, I can tell you that much.

Oh yeah, I don't mean to imply that Minato would ever settle down and forget about Naruto or the loss of his wife. Something like that would haunt him for years, hence the trips East and the pestering of Valar to try and find a way back. I imagine that he'd spend his entire life at least trying to find a way to leverage summoning jutsu's and his mastery of the Hiraishin to create a way home. Just...you know...he doesn't succeed.

I can be a real bastard to characters in my stories.

Anyways, this story is most certainly a one-shot, simply because I don't want to go through the long research process to flesh it out when I'm already working on other things.


End file.
